Sunday, May 9, 2010
Offered by Victoria G. Curtiss, Associate Pastor

Loving Author of all that is, we praise you for your Word made flesh through Jesus Christ, for your many words of blessing and guidance and comfort. The wonder of your loving hands is apparent wherever we turn our eyes: in the blue waves of the lake, in the flowering trees, in the sun breaking through the clouds, in the faces of loved ones and strangers alike, and in the knowledge that we belong to you.

On this Mother’s Day, we give you thanks for the women and men in our lives who have shown us motherly love. For their sacrifice of putting our needs before their own, we are grateful. For their abiding love and persistent efforts to nurture our growth, we give thanks. We pray for new parents who face the daunting task of providing life and meaning to their children, and for parents of young children as they learn about the emerging personality of those in their care. We pray for parents of growing children and youth who question and formulate values of their own. Grant them strength, patience, and understanding. We pray for parents of children with special needs, parents who are separated from their children for whatever reason, and parents who cannot provide for their children all that is needed. Grant each of them a sense of your abiding presence and the comfort of your Spirit at work in their lives and the lives of their children. We pray for women who have children and wish they didn’t, and for women who don’t have children and wish they did. And we pray for mothers who grieve the loss of a child and for children who this day grieve or miss their mothers. Grant them your own compassionate healing, and increase the connections we have with the whole human family.

We also pray this day for Mother Earth. Especially we pray that the efforts to contain the oil spill succeed, that the work to save creatures of land and sea are effective, and that we learn to be better stewards of your precious creation.

You are Mother and Father of us all. Bind us to our brothers and sisters in ways that transcend differences, that we may live in harmony and thus bring you pleasure. Be especially with those who are seeking employment, those who are grieving, and any who are ill or recovering from or facing surgery. All this we pray in the name of your Son our Lord, Jesus Christ, who taught us to pray, Our Father . . .

Prayer © Fourth Presbyterian Church